Krzysztof Kieslowski Quotations

Do people really want liberty, equality, fraternity? Is it
not some manner of speaking?

For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in
arm. Or maybe into the
sunrise--whatever appeals to you.

In believing too much in rationality, our contemporaries have
lost something.

I feel Polish. More specifically, I feel like I'm from the
tiny village in the Northeast of Poland where I have a house
and where I love to spend time. But I don't work there. I
cut wood.

I have no problem being with people of different nationalities.

I like chance meetings--life is full of them. Everyday,
without realizing it, I pass people whom I should know. At
this moment, in this cafe, we're sitting next to
strangers. Everyone will get up, leave, and go on
their own way. And they'll never meet again. And if
they do, they won't realize that it's not for the first time.

I wanted to describe the world at the same time, through
image, express what I felt. It was the time of the great
documentary filmmakers: Richard Leacock, Joris Ivens. Today,
television has put an end to this type of filmmaking.

In real life, there are names that surprise us because they
don't seem to suit the
person at all.

In ten phrases, the ten commandments express the essential
of life. And these three words--liberty, equality, and
fraternity--do just as much. Millions of people have died
for those ideals.

Interior liberty is universal.

Maybe it is worth investigating the unknown, if only
because the very feeling of not knowing is a painful one.

Of course I'd like to get beyond the concrete. But it's
really difficult. Very difficult.

Real artists find answers. The knowledge of the artisan is within
the confines of his skills. For example, I know a lot about lenses,
about the editing room. I know what the different buttons on the
camera are for. I know more or less how to use a microphone. I
know all that, but that's not real knowledge. Real knowledge is
knowing how to live, why we live, things like that.

Someone knocks at the door of an apartment to borrow salt or
sugar, people run into each other in the elevator, and in this
way become inscribed in the spectator's memory.

The films should be influenced by the individual commandments
to the same degree that the commandments influence our daily lives

The television industry doesn't like to see the compexity
of the world. It prefers
simple reporting, with simple ideas: this is white, that's
black; this is good, that's bad.

There are mysteries, secret zones in each individual.

To tell you the truth, in my work, love is always in
opposition to the elements. It creates dilemmas. It brings
in suffering. We can't live with it, and we can't live
without it. You'll rarely find a happy ending in my work.

We're always looking at this love through the eyes of the
person who is suffering because of this love.